Education is key to everything we do. Our parents enrolled us in elementary school so we would receive the education necessary to become good citizens and be self-reliant members of society. It is incumbent upon us to not only continue our education daily, but to make certain today’s youth are educated to best of our ability.

Education is key to firearm safety. We need to educate the next generation in the shooting sports and this begins with safe firearm handling.

Picking the perfect shotgun as the class takes to the range in west St. Louis County.

Under the direction of NRA Training Counselors, an instructor class is held each month in different disciplines in order to have enough instructors to permit shooting sports activities to be offered to the 37,000 youth members of the Council. Classes are rotated monthly through the disciplines of Rifle, Shotgun, Pistol, ML Rifle, ML Shotgun, ML Pistol, and Range Safety Officer. The BSA requires that all shooting sports activities must be supervised by a currently NRA Certified Instructor in the specific discipline being utilized and when on the range, must be supervised by a currently NRA Certified Range Safety Officer.

The BSA is committed to training our young shooters. We not only train youth in firearms safety, but also adults to be certified instructors. Training an average of fifteen instructors per month, these instructors can then go back to their home Scout troops, Venture crews and Explorer posts and train dozens of youth each year in firearms safety. For many, this will be their first experience with a firearm. It needs to be safe and it needs to be positive.